Saturday, March 2, 2013

February progress

I didn't get as much reading done in February and didn't read a very wide variety. Four of the nine books that I read were current crime fiction of one sort or another--lawyer, cop, Army CID--by authors whose books I put on hold as soon as I know that they are coming out. One of these was an audio book that the hubby and I listened to on the way back from Florida. I read one historical fiction book. The other four books that I read were all some variety of sci-fi or fantasy: one post-apocalyptic, one time-travel, one young adult steampunk space adventure, one classic fantasy, and one Russian fantasy classic.

I enjoyed all of them except The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. It had been recommended to me by several people, so I expected to enjoy it, but I didn't. The Kronos Interference was so forgettable that from a distance of a week I can't remember it. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny was very good and I got a book with the whole series in it, so I will be reading those from time to time. The Postman was a good post-apocalyptic story with a unique story idea. It was also very good.

As far as challenges go, I have read 24/100 for Read a Latte; 12/18 for Genre Variety; 3/10 for A Little Help From My Friends; 1/6 for What's in a Name, which may prove to be the most challenging this year; 11/50 for the Library challenge; 2/12 for the TBR Pile; 3/7-10 for Nerdy Non-fiction; 3/6 required and 3/5 optional for the Classics challenge; still at 2/8 for Vintage Mystery; 3/15 for historical fiction; and 1/4 for Tea and Books. I need to try to do a bit better on books for my challenges in March. February was a low brain activity month and my ability to read anything very complex just was not there. (Thus all the crime fiction.)

I have also managed to read five books so far this year--one this month--for my five year Filling in the Gaps challenge. This puts me at 41/100 with two years and nine months left to go.